With the growing number of older population, our society raises the need to organise various forms of care. In contemporary society, this is considered to be a long-term care system. Since Slovenia does not yet have a long-term care system based on long-term care legislation, while the demographic trends show a great need for it, it is essential to investigate the needs of older people and the possible responses to their needs. By using the method of rapid assessment of needs and services in the Municipality of Straza, we have identified the nature and extent of long-term distress, and sought effective responses to the needs of older people following the modern guidelines of care and substitutions for institutional care. We have found that the population of the municipality is old, the young population is moving away, and the middle generation commutes daily to work outside the municipality. There is no one available to take care of the older population and this trend will continue in the future. The solutions may be found in the organisation of community assistance within the municipality and in regional integration. When planning new services, however, the trend of lowering the quality of well-being of older people, overcoming the prevailing taboos about the phenomena of old age and strengthening the autonomy and power of older people, their social network and introducing modern information and communication technology should be taken into account in the context of social policy. Key words: older people, welfare, institutions, innovations, long-term care. Uz porast starijeg stanovnistva, u nasem drustvu raste potreba za organiziranjem razlicitih oblika skrbi. U modernom drustvu smatra se da je to dugoro cni sustav skrbi. Kako Slovenija jos uvijek nema dugorocni sustav skrbi utemeljen na dugorocnom zakonodavstvu o skrbi, iako demografski trendovi pokazuju da za to postoji velika potreba, nuzno je istraziti potrebe starijih osoba i moguce zadovoljavanje njihovih potreba. Koristeci metodu brze procjene potreba i usluga u opcini Straza, identificirali smo prirodu i opseg dugorocnih potreba i iznasli ucinkovita rjesenja za potrebe starijih osoba slijedeci moderne smjernice u skrbi i zamjenu za institucijsku skrb. Ustanovili smo da je stanovnistvo opcine staro, da se mlade stanovnistvo iseljava, a sredovjecna generacija svakodnevno putuje na posao izvan opcine. Nema nikoga tko bi mogao skrbiti o starijima, a taj ce se trend nastaviti i u buducnosti. Rjesenja se mogu pronaci u organizaciji pomoci unutar opcinske zajednice i u regionalnoj integraciji. Ipak, u kontekstu socijalne politike pri planiranju novih usluga treba uzeti u obzir trend smanjivanja kvalitete zivota starijih osoba, nadilazenje rasprostranjenih tabua o fenomenu starosti i smanjivanju autonomije i moci starijih osoba, njihovu drustvenu umrezenost i uvodenje moderne informacijske i komunikacijske tehnologije. Kljucne rijeci: starije osobe, socijalna skrb, institucije, inovacije, dugorocna skrb.